From before the country's conception to the war that divided it and the fallout that abolished it, slavery was deeply rooted in American society. From poor white farmers, to Northern abolitionists, to Southern gentry, and apathetic Northerners, slavery transformed how people viewed both their lives and freedom. To truly understand the impact slavery had on American society one must look no further than those who experienced it firsthand. Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave and abolitionist supporter, is on this person. Douglass was a living contradiction to the American society of his time. He was an African-American man, self-taught, knowledgeable, well-spoken, and a robust writer. Douglass displayed a level of skill that few of his collaborators at the time could acquire. With his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave Written by Himself, Douglass fascinated the people of his time with his firsthand accounts of the horror and brutality that is the institution of slavery. A staunch abolitionist, Douglass would take the country by storm through the power of his words and writings. His narrative was unique in how it was written and the content it contained. Unlike most biographies of freed slaves, Douglass will write his own story, and in his own words. His narrative will attempt to understand the effects that slavery was having not only on slaves, but also on slave owners. The success of his biography, however, depended not on the amount of horror it contained, but on the unmistakable authenticity it provided. His narrative would compel his readers to take action with graphic accounts of the whippings that slaves would receive as punishment, “the noise… in the middle of the paper… dependence on American religious ideals of purity, peace, and fairness.” conduct. Being a devout man, Master Thomas converted many in the name of the church. His house even became the home of preachers who held meetings and sermons. However, this did not change his behavior towards his slaves. For all his pious deeds, inside Thomas was an evil man who whipped, beat, and disowned his slaves out of a warped sense of duty to the church and God: "Here was a man newly converted, clinging to his mother , and at the same time hand over her helpless child, to starve and die! "Works Cited Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. An American Slave written by himself. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001) Henretta, James A., Rebecca Edwards, and Robert Self. America: A Concise History. (Boston: Bedford, St. Martin's, 2006),